Little Pitchers Have Big Ears - AND Mouths!

As any parent will tell you, kids will listen and retain what they hear around them, even if they are seemingly completely in another world. They will parrot what they hear back at the most inopportune moments, as well. And in the case of our 7 year old, they will stick to their story, no matter how wrong they have it. And no matter how many adults refute them. Or maybe it's just him.

He decided to tell his grandmother, who is a McCain supporter, that McCain is a bad man because he will force everyone in the US to go to church.

I heard him start to say this, and I thought, OH MY GAWD. No, please no - tell me he isn't saying THAT.

Yes, he was saying that.

And then he went and blamed it on his FATHER. Little booger even had a scape goat! Thankfully, my mother #1, knows her son-in-law and the level of his intelligence, and #2, knows how 7 year old boys are, and THEIR level of intelligence.

So she said, there is no way your father said that.

And here's where it got interesting!

So Joe decides to argue the point with her, and tries to back up his argument with "information" as well. But he mixed up names of people, and even blamed some sort of church-going foul-play on Hillary Clinton, as well. And despite both my mother's and my telling him he had heard wrong, and that he was mixing things up, as well as saying something patently false and unfair and somewhat insulting - he argued on. My mother and I looked at each other, and just amazingly, we had to be thinking the same thing. That he takes after every SINGLE male in our family. OY.

I finally got him to listen to us, and to hear us. We also told him that being wrong is not such a horrid thing, and that he isn't stupid if he's wrong. We also told him that, in fact, he looks stupid only when he clings to an idea and refuses to back down.

I'm hoping he learned at least to just keep his mouth shut a bit more and listen to adults. We're working on that one, because, apparently, we adults are pretty uneducated, dull, and slow in his eyes.

And hopefully, he figured out too that saying political things just gets him in trouble.

I would so love to hear the actual stuff we were saying that he heard and scrambled in that granite block of his....

Summer is for Losers

Losing pounds, that is...

Summer is a wonderful time for doing things outdoors, and for finding new ways to get a little exercise in. As we begin the summer vacation, and hotter weather, I keep trying to find creative ways to get just a little extra in each day. I call them random acts of fitness. It is an interesting challenge to find a way to get in a few squats on the playground without looking like I have lost my mind, though. I am sure that I am an amusing sight to the other moms and dads. Or else they think I am the town nutcase. All of that aside, I still try to do it. The hotter weather reminds me of how much I hate shorts that don’t fit quite right, and how much my thighs chafe when I am at this weight.

It is amazing the tiny differences and changes that you barely notice when you are either gaining or losing weight. I notice that as I lose, I can walk in shorts easier. I do not have to keep pulling the legs of the shorts out of a bunch between my legs. I do not walk bowlegged from time to time to get the fabric to fall straight. If anyone else has ever had to do this, you will understand completely what I mean when I say I am ecstatic to realize halfway through doing these things that it is not necessary to perform this ritual. Every time I tic off another size or pound gone, I try to remind myself how far I have come. It is much easier to despair of how far I have left to go, since that is such a distant future. Where I was is not nearly as enjoyable as where I am now, and I know where I am going will be a grand, wonderful place, filled once again with buying off the clearance rack, and not having to ask for a bigger size. I am starting to drool just thinking about that place.

So I keep trying to find ways to trick myself into working out without realizing it. It is a big contest to see if I can work out for a half hour without noticing the time. So far, I have found that I can do an hour if I am in a challenging class or have good tunes. And all those little random acts of fitness I do in a day start to add up. Which is good, considering how fast 2 hours of the day care at the gym fly by! I don't get in a lot of weight training yet. But then, the aerobic is more important right now.

Add in the gardening I'm doing to "save money" and heck, I should shock the other moms at school next fall!

Indiana Jones and the Insanity of Momma

Oh. My. GAWD.



This is basically all we hear at our house right now. This song is burned into the walls, we hear it so much. Why is it that a four year old can get a hold of an idea or character, and wear it into the ground with overuse?

With our guy, first it was 2+ years straight of Jack Sparrow - wigs, swords, and Swashbuckling Sea Songs all day and night.

And now it's Indiana Jones, all day, every day. I don't know why, but I put the music from the movies onto my iPod. WHAT was I thinking?? Oyyyyy....

T minus 4 days and COUNTING!

EEEEK! It snuck up on me! It came from way out of left field! It's the last week of school.

Oh, holy hell - what in the world am I supposed to do with two of them all day, every day? And gas prices aren't exactly encouraging me to fork over the money to enroll them in "summer camp" that I'll have to drive to and from. My only respite appears to be my gym membership. Apparently, I'm going to be in good shape on the other side of summer vacation.

Either that, or the snack counter girl and the hot tub will be well acquainted with me!! Don't get me wrong - as I've said before, I love to Spin. But there are days I do prefer to sit. And do nothing, obviously.

I would say, however, that my sanity will take less of a hit if I take the kids to the gym activity center (fancy word for baby kennel) every day or so.

It's just that I've gotten used to my 7 year old being away all day long. And the 4 year old and I have gotten into a rhythm with our days. So throwing in an overbearing older brother COMPLETELY obsessed with Pokemon (and can we just beat up the person who thought THIS up??) into the mix will be, to say the least, "difficult."

My boys get along most of the time. But lately, they're just on each other's nerves. A LOT. My mother bought me a subscription to Family Fun magazine. I like it, because it's not chock full of preachy, never-real-world-possible advice. But let's be realistic - how long will newspaper hat folding occupy them? And baking is a dangerous undertaking with my two.

I never quite pictured that motherhood would involve so much screaming. I knew they would yell, I would yell, their father would yell. I'm damned if I knew they would scream, and whine, and shout so often, so loud, and so annoyingly! I adore my kids, and I adore that I can stay home. But just once, I'd love to know how to keep them happily playing, so that none of us is required to raise our voice.

How does that Duggar woman do it? I still haven't figured it out. I'd be stark raving mad - hell, I'd have gone stark raving mad at number 4 or 5, let alone number 18 or 19!! More power to them - if they can handle it, and afford it, have at it. So not for me.

People ask me all the time when I'm going to "try" for "your girl." As if you're supposed to have at least one of each sex among your children. As if two weren't enough to sap my brain. I have enough patience (barely) for the two I have. I just think the people who ask this are trying to amuse themselves, at my expense. Oooh, fun, look at Deanna trying to navigate Target with 4 kids screaming and running around! Isn't that a hoot?

So yeah, not happening. Now, if we can just get past the Class Picnic (why did I volunteer to be Room Mom again??) and the insanely elaborate show and tell guessing game project we're supposed to make and bring on Friday - then it's summer. And hopefully before school starts again, I will have figured out how to entertain these guys!